In which event did Milkha Singh finish fourth at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games?

The correct answer is A, Javelin throw. Neeraj Chopra won the men's javelin throw at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which were held in 2021, and that medal was India's first Olympic gold in athletics and its first individual gold since shooting in 2008. He went on to take the world title at Budapest in 2023.

Option B, badminton, is wrong because India's badminton medals at the Games have been a silver and bronzes, not a gold, and none of them belongs to Chopra. Option C, tennis, is wrong because India has won only a bronze in tennis at the Olympics, in 1996, and Chopra is not a tennis player. Option D, weight lifting, is wrong because Mirabai Chanu won a silver in weightlifting at the same Tokyo Games, which is why the option looks tempting to a candidate who remembers only the Games and not the event. Chopra is a thrower, and his event is the javelin.

The correct answer is B, 42.195 km. A marathon is run over 42.195 kilometres, which is exactly 26 miles and 385 yards. The odd figure was fixed at the London Olympics of 1908, when the course was extended to finish in front of the royal box, and it became the official distance a few years later.

Option A, 40 km, is close to the distance of the earliest marathons of the 1890s but is not the standard today. Option C, 45 km, matches no athletics event at all. Option D, 50 km, was for many years the longer of the two Olympic race-walking distances, which is why it appears here as a distractor, but walking and the marathon are separate events. A half marathon, worth remembering with this, is 21.0975 kilometres, and the marathon is a road event, not a track event.

The correct answer is B, Milkha Singh. He earned the name in Pakistan after beating the home favourite at a meet in Lahore, and it stayed with him. He finished fourth in the 400 metres final at the 1960 Rome Olympics, won the 440 yards gold at the 1958 Cardiff Commonwealth Games and took two golds at the 1958 Asian Games.

Option A, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, was a fine hurdler who came fifth in the 110 metres hurdles final at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, but he carried no such nickname. Option C, Sriram Singh, reached the 800 metres final at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and long held the national record in that event. Option D, Joginder Singh, is not an athlete remembered under that title. Learn the pair of nicknames together: Milkha Singh is the Flying Sikh and P. T. Usha the Payyoli Express.

The correct answer is B, Payyoli Express. P. T. Usha comes from Payyoli in the Kozhikode district of Kerala, and her speed on the track earned her the name of her village. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics she finished fourth in the 400 metres hurdles, missing the bronze by one hundredth of a second, and at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games she won four golds and a silver.

Option A, Dhing Express, belongs to Hima Das of Dhing in Assam, who won the 400 metres at the 2018 World Under-20 Championships. Option C is a loose description, not the nickname papers use. Option D, Udan Pari, or flying fairy, is a name associated with the sprinter Dutee Chand in press reports and not with Usha. Since two of the four options are genuine athletics nicknames, the question turns on knowing which village goes with which runner.

The correct answer is C, ten. The word decathlon is built from the Greek deca, meaning ten, and athlon, meaning contest. It is a men's combined event held over two days, and its ten disciplines take in sprints, hurdles, the middle-distance 1500 metres, jumps and throws. Points are awarded by a fixed table and the highest total wins.

Option A, seven, is the number of events in the heptathlon, the women's combined event, and is the commonest wrong answer because the two are always taught together. Option B, eight, matches no combined event in athletics. Option D, twelve, is likewise not a recognised total. A third combined event worth noting is the pentathlon, with five events, which survives in the modern pentathlon and in indoor competition. Count the Greek prefix and the answer follows at once.